1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer software, and more particularly to software for a graphical user interface that provides advanced functions for application programs that are not ordinarily available as standard features within the operating systems supporting the application programs. This software may be contribute to greater usability of the application program, as well as improved consistency in its look and feel when ported to heterogeneous computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The continuing proliferation of faster and more powerful computers has been accompanied by an increase in the use of graphical user interfaces. A graphical user interface (or, GUI) offers many advantages over traditional text-based interfaces. A graphical interface may allow multiple application programs to present output simultaneously, each in a distinct window. Thus, it is not necessary to halt one application in order to interact with another. Instead of entering text-based commands and parameters, the user selects icons with a pointing device, such as a mouse. This is faster, easier and less error prone than making these selections using the keyboard.
GUIs are based on the development of object-oriented programming language. Object-oriented programming languages are based on lines of code or “objects” that, when executed, produce an image upon a computer display. Modern object-oriented programming languages can often be written and developed in a relatively short period of time. For example, an application written in programming language A may run 30% faster on a given computer than the same application written in programming language B. On first impression, it would seem that language A is superior to B. However, the programmers using language A may need two months to complete the application, while language B can be finished in a week. In many cases, the additional speed gained by using language A is unimportant. For example, if the application spent most of its time waiting on user input, the 30% speed improvement would not be noticeable. On the other hand, the length of time required to write the program is almost always important, since it reflects development cost. This has led to introduction of modern object-oriented programming languages, such as C++ and Java. Often accompanying the new languages are rapid application development (or, RAD) environments, which typically combine compilers, editors, code debuggers, and other features in a programmer's “toolkit” to accelerate application development.
Object-oriented programming languages represent a new paradigm for software design. Computer programs have traditionally been structured as a sequence of operations, which implements an algorithm or procedure. However, the traditional procedural model suffers from several weaknesses that limit its usefulness for modern software design. In the early days of computers, software programs were of limited size and complexity. Since these programs were typically written by a small group of programmers (often, one individual), it was comparatively easy to ensure that consistent software standards were observed, and issues such as portability and reuse of code were given little consideration. Today's software programs are often huge composites of complex, interacting code developed by disparate teams of programmers. Modern software development requires coordinating the efforts of many individuals to develop a unified, consistent body of software. In these larger, more complex software projects the shortcomings of procedural programming languages become apparent. One area of difficulty that emerges is in maintaining consistent interfaces between the components of a large software program. Software routines interact with each other or exchange data via an interface—i.e., a set of statements, functions, options, etc. for expressing program instructions and data provided by one program segment for use by a another program segment. For example, a printer driver may be called by various other routines in a program to produce hardcopy output.
As noted herein, a software component is any sequence of executable code. The code can be executed from an operating system which configures the computer or microprocessor. When dealing with GUIs, software component can be a sequence of code lines that define an image presented on a computer display. Thus, a sequence of code, deemed a software component, can contain instructions for generating an image. Such a software component can be alternatively known as an “object.” For example, the GUI software component is alternatively known as an object, and the object can provide an image upon the display when executed by a processor. In order to operate effectively, it is important that the interface between software components be fully defined and be adhered to scrupulously. For highly complex and extensive programs, this can entail a great deal of effort and can have considerable impact on software development time.
Code reusability is another important factor in modern software development. Time-to-market considerations dictate that reuse of existing code is preferable to writing new code. For example, a programmer developing software to perform spectral analysis may require a program to compute the Fourier transform. It may take him two weeks to write and debug such a program, but just two days to modify a pre-existing program for his needs. Since it is generally more efficient to reuse code than to recreate it, there has been an increasing emphasis on modularity in software design. Modular code is self-contained and has well defined input and output parameters, allowing it to be easily combined with or integrated into other code.
The object-oriented paradigm has arisen to enable faster development of complex software programs. It encourages the use of consistent interfaces between program modules, and is conducive to the creation of reusable, modular code. These features are highly advantageous in the development of large, intricate software programs, requiring the coordinated effort of several programmers.
A departure from traditional programming languages, the object-oriented paradigm is based on objects, rather than procedures. The fundamental entities in an object-oriented programming (“OOP”) language are classes created by the programmer, which possess properties appropriate for their intended purpose. Once a class has been defined, one or more objects can be created as instances of the class. Individual objects possess all the attributes of the class they represent. For example, a software component (e.g., a program for a GUI) might contain objects such as windows, menus, buttons, etc. having properties such as color, size, location on screen, etc. In addition to their properties, objects also have methods. Methods are actions supported by the object, by means of which they interact with other objects or respond to external events. A major difference between OOP languages and traditional procedural program languages is that the methods and properties of an object are encapsulated. In object-oriented programming, encapsulation refers to the inclusion within an object of all the resources needed for the object to function—basically, the method and the properties. Other objects adhere to these interfaces to use the object without having to be concerned with how the object accomplishes it. This makes it easier to ensure that objects interface with one another in a consistent manner, and also protects the internal data of the object from unintentional corruption by other program components. By virtue of encapsulation, an object can be thought of as a self-contained atom. When an object is created, certain of its properties and methods are defined as “public,” and the remaining ones as “private.” Only the public properties and methods are accessible to other objects; the private properties and methods are protected. For example, the properties and methods of a sequence of code (i.e., an object) of a GUI software component which defines the color of a window and the menu layout can be accessible by another object which defines another window, menu, and scroll bar layout so that the first object can be dependent on the second object for producing a sequence of windows, each having its own property and method dependent on each other.
Encapsulation also benefits code reuse by simplifying the manner in which an object is accessed. For example, a programmer can reuse a previously created object having a method that performs a Fourier transform. In an object-oriented scenario, he simply includes the object definition in his program, and references its method when needed. It is generally not necessary to closely examine or modify the code within the object, since the object method completely defines the interface. A feature of object-oriented programming languages that further benefits code reusability is inheritance. The concept of inheritance is that certain software components, or objects, can inherit the properties and methods of a parent software component, or object. Thus, objects of code can be developed as modular building-blocks, with subsequent objects being children of parent objects. For example, a parent object when executed by a processor may produce an image indicative of an entire window and when executing a child object, the child object produces a sub-window, or template, within the parent object-executed window, or image. Importantly, the parent object can define a class, and the child object can inherit the class (properties and methods) of the parent object. In addition, the child object can also take on further methods and properties unique to the child object class. For example, a “jet” class can be defined as a child of an existing “airplane” class, with added properties, such as “turbine velocity.” Once the subclass exists, the programmer is free to create new objects with jet-like properties.
Some objects have a graphical representation. For example, it is common to include buttons, checkboxes, and other similar “controls” in a GUI belonging to an application program. Images associated with these objects are displayed on a computer screen to allow the user to interact with the application. Among the methods of such objects are display methods (e.g., “paintIcon”), which can be invoked to make the object appear on the computer screen. When a displayable object (i.e., object being a sequence of code) is created by an application program, its size and location with respect to a “layout” must typically be declared. A layout is a region of the screen allocated for the display of a given set of controls, and within which the arrangement and orientation of the controls are established. To permit a user to interact with the GUI, displayable controls typically include methods enabling them to respond to external events, such as mouse button clicks. The object code that is the recipient of a user event (e.g., a pointer device placed over a button displayed on a computer display) is referred to as the target object. Thus, a target object can receive method-type code imparted to it when a user interacts with the GUI.
Java is a modern OOP language, designed with an emphasis on portability. As used herein, the term “platform” refers to a specific combination of hardware and operating system. More specifically, a platform consists of an operating system, the computer system's coordinating program, which in turn is built on the instruction set for a processor or microprocessor, the hardware that performs logic operations and manages data movement in the computer. A software program is said to be “portable” across various platforms if the program can run without modification on any of those platforms. This “write once—run anywhere” principle is the underlying philosophy behind OOP languages such as Java.
The portability of Java depends on the presence of a Java virtual machine (JVM) in the target computer (i.e., the computer on which the Java application is to execute). A JVM “translates” the generic Java code into instructions specific to the target machine (i.e., “native” code) at runtime. Therefore, the same Java program can run without modification on any computer for which a JVM exists.
Since its introduction, Java has found use in many areas, including GUI development, where the portability of Java code is highly advantageous. As used herein, the “look and feel” of a GUI refers to such things as the appearance, color and behavior of Buttons, TextFields, Listboxes, menus, etc. and their mouse, keyboard handling and behavior. Look and feel is the generic way in which to describe the appearance of an image on a computer display to that of another image on a computer display. If the window, icons contained within the window, the control menu, the general layout of that window, and the colors of the various features shown on that window are similar to that of another window image, then the two images are said to have essentially the same look and feel.
Often, a software program is intended to run on various machines, or under various operating systems, while maintaining a consistent look and feel. If the GUI is written in Java, a great deal of the code can be common across platforms, since Java is portable. This shortens development time, since the developer only has to write one version of the GUI code to be ported to all of the desired target machines or operating systems. It also improves maintainability of the code. When bug fixes or feature upgrades are necessary, they are confined to one version of the code, rather than several machine/system-specific versions.
Unfortunately, the portability of Java does not guarantee a completely consistent, platform-independent look and feel for a Java-based GUI. This is because the GUI still derives some of the look and feel of the platform through its reliance on an application program interface (“API”). An API is an interface used by an application program to access operating system services. Therefore, API is an interface between the application program and the operating system, or platform. The UIManager is a constituent of the API that contains the look and feel settings of the GUI. By making calls to the API, an application program can invoke the resources of the operating system, for example, to write to the computer screen or detect the position of the mouse cursor, or to request the current look and feel settings. Traditionally, Java applications utilize an API known as the abstract windowing toolkit (“AWT”). Using the AWT, multiple platform-specific implementations of each GUI component, known as component Peers, can be created. Component Peers or software component Peers are object lines of code that contain one or more such lines unique to the operating system in which the component software Peer is intended to interface. When executed, the component Peer will produce an image dependent on the operating system since the program interface of an AWT is platform dependent. Due to the platform-dependence of the interface toolkit or AWT, different operating systems will have different AWT implementations. As a result of these dissimilarities, the appearance of controls (i.e., buttons, lists, checkboxes, etc.), created by a Java-based GUI will vary when the GUI is ported to different platforms.
The platform-dependence of the AWT also increases the difficulty of enhancing and maintaining Java GUI application code. In order to add a new feature to the GUI, for example, it is necessary to modify dissimilar code in the AWT for each supported platform. Moreover, it may be extremely difficult to obtain consistent behavior from the added feature, because of code differences in the platform-specific AWTs.
Text rendering is another consideration in the development of a platform-neutral GUI. Various platforms employ diverse methods of drawing text, some of which are more efficient or yield better quality than others. The native methods used in many AWTs can use only one font at a time, and do not support font searching to locate the glyphs (graphic symbols that provide the appearance or form for a character) required for accurate text rendering. Because of this, the consistency of the look and feel may be lost when the GUI is ported from a system with good text quality to one with poor text quality.
Furthermore, many operating systems do not use unicode representations for text, making them susceptible to conversion errors or limited character set coverage. Unicode is a new standard for associating binary codes with text or script characters. Officially called the unicode Worldwide Character Standard, it is a system for the interchange, processing, and display of written text in all the major languages of the modern world. Currently, the unicode standard contains 34,168 distinct coded characters derived from 24 supported language scripts, covering the principal written languages of the world. Unicode support is important for a universal, platform-independent GUI. However, dependence on the platform-specific AWT presents an obstacle to the use of unicode in a Java-based GUI.